INTERACTION

Can anyone help me with this? I’m trying to send a pile of remaindered and author copies of my books as donations to public libraries. (This is something I always recommend to writers, for four reasons: it helps libraries stock their shelves during times of budget cuts; it gains you readers - at least potentially; it earns you extra PLR; and it makes space on your shelves for books you haven’t actually read).

I download the names and addresses of libraries from this very useful website: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/squar ... blibs.html
and cut and paste them into a word-processing document. I’m doing a big mailing at the moment, so what I want to do is to print the addresses onto sheets of sticky labels, which I can then plaster onto the hundreds of recycled jiffy bags with which (being a book reviewer) my house is full, and off we go ...

But I can’t figure out how to do it. The only options I can find are to print a single address on a single label, or to print the same address on a whole sheet of labels. What I want to do is to print a different address on each label. It must be possible ...

It's possible... What's your word processor? And how many addresses?
I used to do mailmerges when I used Lotus Wordpro, in the days when the sheet of labels slipped as they fed through the printer until the addresses walked off the edge of the label.
Started trying to format the address file for Word to use as a database but somewhere along the way decided it was quicker writing them by hand. Somebody, somewhere must have been stubborn enough to see it through...

I do it via MS Access, a database, but first I put all the addresses into MS Excel and then link that to the Access database.

I can send you a template(s) but if don't have the software it won't help.

I have an MS Word template you could load the addresses into for a 3*7 Avery L7160 label layout. But it would be very laborious to addresses into it by cut and paste.

It’s time yet again for my annual reminder to colleagues: if you are a published writer of any sort - whether or not you are a feelthy pro - PLEASE go and have a look at the ALCS website immediately, to see whether you are eligible for a share of FREE MONEY. Like several other sensible people on these message boards, I have received a sizeable cheque from ALCS this week - all for filling in a few forms. Do it now, not later; please.

If you think you might not be eligible - please go and check, anyway! You never know ... and all it’ll cost you is a few minutes of your time.

ALCS: http://www.alcs.co.uk/About_ALCS/about_alcs.aspx

Anyone who believes in freedom of the press, pluralism and democracy will be sad to hear that the offices of the only newspaper in Britain which is actually different to the rest - the Morning Star - were severely damaged by an electrical fire on Monday. No-one was hurt, and, amazingly, “the daily paper of the Left” is still coming out, albeit in truncated form.

This might be a good moment for anyone who does hold dear the values mentioned above to consider sending a small donation to the Star’s fighting fund. You can pay by post or by PayPal; the latter at the website www.morningstaronline.co.uk the former with cheques made payable to PPFF and sent to Mac O'Connell, PPFF, William Rust House, 52 Beachy Road, London E3 2NS.

I have a new website, where you can read the first two chapters of my new (not yet published) novel: www.matcoward.com

The site is courtesy of the (US) Authors Guild. This is a superb organisation, and I would strongly urge anyone who is published in the USA to join it - the benefits of membership are considerable. The Guild is at http://authorsguild.org

Dear Experts:

I want to buy a thing, but I don’t know for sure whether it exists. Is it possible to get a wireless, non-line-of-sight-dependent, speaker for your PC? When I’m listening to cricket on the internet, I want to be able to wander around the house, or down the garden, and still hear the commentary - not to be tied to the one room. (My present method, of turning up the volume so high that the picture shake on my neighbours’ walls, is ethically unsustainable).

Is there such a device, and if so what should I expect to pay for it?

This type of wifi internet radiomay do the trick

Some of the Tranciva IR804: - 3 in 1 Radio's features
- Listen to internet, DAB and FM Stations.
- Wirelessly listen to MP3s from your PC on the Radio.
- Stream music directly from your pc

Thanks, Roy. Blimey, that's expensive, isn't it? Mind you, looks like it does a lot for the money ... more than I need, really. I couldn't figure out whether it was battery powered or not, but I'd guess that even if it is, the batts wouldn't last long.

I've seen an Internet Radio in Aldi at a cheap price but not for a while.
I don't know for sure that it will do what you ask but it looks likely. It's possible you need a wireless router to go with them.
A search might find a more reasonably priced device. DAB radios seem to use lots of power and drain batteries fast. No doubt these will do likewise.

Rechargeable batteries are much, much cheaper than traditional ones.

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http://jimsteel.wordpress.com/

Thanks to the excellent Authors Guild, and its "Backinprint" programme, the fourth of my "Don and Frank" crime novels, "Open and closed," is now available in paperback for the first time:
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/Book ... -000127209

Thanks to everyone who replied to my query, above, about cordless speakers. In case anyone else is wondering about the same thing, I ended up (on a friend’s advice) getting cordless earphones (Philips SHC8525), which do the job very well.

Ireland now has PLR - and writers in Britain, whose books are borrowed from Irish libraries, are entitled to register for payments: http://www.plr.ie/

It all adds up ...

A slightly odd query here ... a reader emailed me to ask whether I knew the title or author of a novel by a British writer which mentions one of my magazine columns. I had to admit I didn’t - but perhaps someone else does?